Unreal quickly spawned the multiplayer spin-off called Unreal Tournament, pitting futuristic warriors against each other in a relentless battle for supremacy, with only the thinnest smattering of plot. UT was all about gameplay, and more importantly, about online gameplay against other people, in teams or in one big free-for-all. With guns. Big guns.

Ever since those heady, adrenaline-filled late night frag sessions began, the Epic team have been building upon the experience with games like UT 2003 and 2004, bringing better and better graphics, game styles and gore.

Even though versions were brought out on the consoles, UT would always remain a PC game (in my mind at least) because of the level of control a keyboard and mouse allows in terms of speed and accuracy, compared to the clumsiness of a console paddle.

So when it came to having a burn on Unreal Championship 2 on the X-Box, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it – I’d played other FPS games on a variety of consoles and never got the same feel of immediacy that I did with on my PC setup.

Epic were obviously aware of this from the start of the UC2 project, and didn’t just set about making another “port” from one platform to another, but took into account the strengths and weaknesses of the console and built the gameplay around the controller, hardware, and importantly, the audience.

For a start, they added melee combat, which anyone who tried fragging with the gauntlet in UT will know just doesn’t quite work in first-person view. So they added 3^rd person view as default, with the option of going back to first-person for firearms.

You’ll also notice some hefty ‘beat’em up’ influences creeping in to UC2 in the form of several special moves for each character, and deathblows - if you can manage to mash the buttons in the right order and quickly enough, you can deliver devastating coups de grace.

This influence is no coincidence though, as it seems like the team behind Mortal Kombat, Midway, collaborated closely with Epic when they obtained the publishing rights.

This makes for a pretty unusual, but deeply satisfying, blend of sci-fi shooter and hack’n’slash close combat.

UC2 is a passable standalone game…There is a storyline that doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on tenuous reasons for the next inevitable fight…. But what there is, is well done. With good animation, fast-paced and reasonable dialogue, the cut scenes don’t leave you reaching for the “get on with it!” button.

But if you never take your XBox online, or at the very least connect up with a friend’s for a 1 on 1 grudge-fest, then you really will be missing out, as Xbox Live is where the game really comes into its own. Or should that be pwn?

Beware though: you’ll want to put in some serious offline practise and familiarise yourself with the control system – particularly switching from melee to ranged weapons and using your shield; special moves; scaling walls and mastering the different jumps and boosts…In fact, you’ll want to know the game inside-out if you want to last more than 30 seconds out in the ‘real’ world…

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